History

A large villa built in the second half of the C19 overlooking Conwy and N Wales mountains. It is shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey with a projection against the N (entrance) front that has since been taken down, and without the veranda on the E and S sides, which must therefore be later. The 1913 Ordnance Survey shows a conservatory on the S side of the main range. The house became a hotel in 1913, owned by the Co-operative and Communal Holidays Fellowship (now HF Holidays), founded by Thomas Arthur Leonard (1868-1948). In the early C20 a SW wing was added behind the W wing, which was also extended and later re-roofed. A detached wing was added in 1963.

Exterior

A large Gothic style villa. One and a half storeyed, complex plan giving picturesque overall character. Walls are rock-faced rubble stone, with grey freestone dressings, and the steep slate roof has snecked rock-faced stacks. The house is in 3 main sections: the double-depth entrance range facing N, a W wing set forward on the R side of the front, and a gabled SW wing on the steep ground behind it. The entrance range is 4 bays and asymmetrical. The facade is anchored by a circular tower with conical roof, to the left of which are paired gables with veranda at ground floor, and to the right of which is the entrance. This has an octagonal glazed top-lit porch with pointed windows and double doors, and late C20 pyramidal roof with lantern. Above is a 2-pane sash window in a gabled half dormer with barge boards. The tower has pointed arched windows linked by continuous impost band at first floor (glazing detail renewed), and similar window to ground floor in projecting gablet. Conical roof carried on brackets has gabled lucarnes incorporating trefoils. Paired gables to left have arched French doors with wood-mullioned overlights beneath veranda, and arched wooden cross windows above.
The veranda continues in front of the 2-bay east elevation, but is cut by a lean-to early C20 conservatory in the L-hand bay. The R-hand bay is similar to the gables of the entrance front, and like them, has French doors and pointed cross window to a dormer under a coped gable. In the gabled L-hand bay the attic has a 2-light stone mullioned window with quatrefoil in a freestone tympanum.
The S garden front is also 4 irregular bays. Broad gable offset to right of centre, with pointed archied window, flanked by smaller steep gabled dormer with decorative bargeboards to left and catslide dormer to right. Veranda at ground floor right has moulded cast iron posts with scrollwork brackets and modern glazed roof. Beneath it are replacement half-glazed fielded-panel doors under original pointed wood-mullioned overlights. The wider gabled bay also has a second former doorway on the L side, now converted to a fixed small-pane window. Pointed arched cross windows in the lower storey of the left hand bay.
The W wing is advanced to the right of the entrance. It has a 3-bay N front incorporating part of the original house. Detail is consistently pointed arched windows (though with inserted basy window to ground floor left) with variation in stonework betraying the different phasing of its 3 bays. The coped parapet is also an addition, evidence for which is a continuous horizontal joint at eaves level. The R (W) side wall of the wing is brick, and has small-pane steel-framed and replacement windows, as well as a 1st-floor link to a detached wing of c1963. To the rear the W wing is roughcast painted white and has pointed windows, with steel-framed glazing in the lower storey and replaced in the 1st floor. The E return wall, facing the main house, has a segmental-headed 2-light window.
The SW wing is a C20 addition. 2-storey with basement, of whitened brick to basement and ground floor, pebble-dashed between brick pilasters in the 1st floor, under a hipped slate roof on overhanging eaves. In the basement it has a passage through the side walls. Its 4-window side walls have replacement and steel-framed casement windows, and on the R side of the E wall, double glazed doors under an original diamond latticework overlight. The 3-window S end wall, of grey pebble-dash, has replacement windows.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its social historical interest as a hotel specifically designed to provide open-air holidays for workmen and their families, and for its special architectural interest as a late C19 villa of definite character.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29483228

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey